At least one person has been killed and more than a dozen others injured after a van plowed into a crowd during Berlin’s annual LGBTQ+ Pride event. Authorities have evacuated the area, launched a manhunt for one or more suspects, and are investigating the incident.
The ‘brutal attack’ happened on Saturday evening just hours after the city’s annual Christopher Street Day (CSD) pride event began, with thousands in attendance for the celebration.
Police said a white van charged through the city’s central Tiergarten Park, near the Brandenburg Gate. Witnesses said several people were hit before the van crashed into a tree and the driver fled on foot.
At least 16 people were injured in the crash and it has been reported the person killed was a woman. At least three people sustained life-threatening injuries, while eight have been left seriously injured.
Several hours after the incident, police said they had identified a ‘suspected perpetrator’ who is a member of Berlin’s ‘Islamist scene’ but that they had not been detained.
A spokesperson said: ‘We have now identified a suspected perpetrator. Measures against this suspected perpetrator, who has not yet been arrested, are underway.
‘However, this suspected perpetrator is known to the police as a member of the Islamist scene here in Berlin.’
The Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, said in a post on X that a ‘gathering for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin has been most brutally attacked’.
He added: ‘After a peaceful and colourful CSD, the assembly for a tolerant and peaceful Berlin was attacked in the most brutal way,’ he wrote.
‘Berlin is the city of freedom – and our freedom has been attacked in the most horrific way today.
‘And I trust the police and security authorities, who will investigate at full speed.’
The van was found smashed into a tree, but empty with no driver or passengers inside.
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